Bronx Apartment Fire Injures Two, Displaces 14 Families

A firefighter was seriously injured and a homeless man was critically injured when a stairway collapsed Thursday morning during an intense fire in the Bronx that displaced 74 people, authorities said.

The firefighter suffered several broken bones when the stairwell crumbled between the third and fourth floors of the building on Sedgwick Avenue in the Morris Heights neighborhood. Calls reporting the blaze first arrived at 3:54 a.m. and it took firefighters a little less than an hour to place it under control, the fire department said.

Fire marshals were investigating the cause of the fire, and it was too early to tell if it was suspicious or accidental, officials said. But a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case said investigators are looking into the possibility that the fire started when someone tried to set a homeless man on fire. Residents of the building complained that the homeless man, who was critically injured in the fire, often slept on an old couch on the third floor, and someone may have tried to scare him away.

Firefighters were forced to rescue several residents from fire escapes as the inferno spread from the third floor to the fourth floor of the five story brick building, officials said. The injured firefighter was apparently rescuing a civilian when the stairway buckled, sending both tumbling two flights.

The firefighter, who was not identified, was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital where was listed in serious but stable condition with several bone fractures. The homeless man was taken to Bronx Lebanon Hospital where he was listed in critical condition with smoke inhalations and burns. Another firefighter received a minor injury and a second resident was treated at the scene for a minor injury, officials said.

Residents who escaped were unable to go back to their apartments as engineers assessed the structure’s stability after the stairwell collapse, the Red Cross said; 74 people, or 14 families, had been registered for immediate emergency assistance. Many of them were taken to the Red Cross reception center in Midtown Manhattan, where they are being set-up for temporary shelter and where case workers could tend to their medical needs.

While the Red Cross can provide temporary housing for about three days, the city will be responsible for finding “more long term transient housing,” said Red Cross spokeswoman Marianne Darlak.

A Department of Buildings spokeswoman said inspectors found that the staircase had partially collapsed and issued a vacate order for the 21 apartments in the buildings. A violation was also issued to the owner of the building, Barfield Realty Company, for failing to maintain the building, the spokeswoman said.